“Powerful, engaging, and enlightening.” Kirkus Review. Check out the full review:
This is the most personal book I have written. As a teen in the 1960s, I lived during the inspiring leadership of both men and the aftermath of their tragic deaths in 1968, as well as many other events in the story. In my author’s note and in a blog post for School Library Journal, I share my journey. Check it out on the Teen Librarian Toolbox blog.
This is a book about the Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., men from different worlds who challenged and tested each other as wary allies in the fight for civil rights. After JFK’s assassination and the passage of two civil rights bills, King and Kennedy took different paths, but by 1968 they had arrived in the same place. Both leaders believed that alleviating poverty was America’s biggest challenge. In the last speech he would ever give, Martin Luther King talked about America’s legacy of nonviolent protest and his hopes for our country’s future.
Their individual life experiences revealed in the book show how they can affect a leader’s ability to show empathy for all people. I learned in researching the book that great political figures like King and Kennedy don’t work in a vacuum, ,but are influenced by events and people around them. Martin’s courage showed Bobby how to act on one’s moral principles, and Bobby’s growing awareness of the country’s racial and economic divide gave Martin hope that the nation’s leaders could truly support justice.
Martin and Bobby: A Journey Toward JusticeFifty years later, the lives and words of Kennedy and King still stir people young and old and offer inspiration and insight on how our country can face the historic challenges of economic and racial inequality.